The need for the timber haulage side of the industry to decarbonise has been brought into stark focus in recent years. 

THEY are as much a part of the fabric of Britain’s road network as BP garages and potholes. But if they are to avoid the same fate as Little Chef, the country’s timber hauliers need to adapt for the future. 

The challenge was laid bare in ‘Road Haulage Decarbonisation: Overview Report’, a report written by Neil Stoddart of Creel Consulting and presented to the Timber Transport Forum in 2022. Findings included: 

  • 99 per cent of the UK’s fleet is powered by fossil fuels 
  • Only 15 per cent of the country’s timber hauliers had given thought to decarbonisation 
  • Each truck is responsible for 111 tonnes of CO2 output per year.

In a foreword to the report, Alistair M Speedie, chair of the Timber Transport Forum, wrote: “The UK’s plans for electric vehicle adoption are so ahead of the pack, the country’s Transport Decarbonisation Plan aims to have removed carbon from all forms of domestic transport by 2050. 

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“In addition to this, the UK government has also made the recent pledge to phase out the sale of HGVs of 26 tonnes and under by 2035. It is clear that despite, or perhaps because of, the scale and complexity of the challenges we face, the timber haulage industry must make a step-change in how we reduce our carbon emissions.” 

Alternatives to traditional haulage are being actively pursued. In Scotland, around 225,000 tonnes of timber are being shipped across the Firth of Clyde from Argyll’s forests to wood processors based in Ayrshire, instead of using timber lorries. This is predicted to save around 2.2 million lorry miles, and nearly 4,000 tonnes of harmful CO2 emissions.

Announcing this last year, the country’s environment minister Mairi McAllan said: “I am keen to see a modal shift to coastal shipping and away from using rural roads, helping to decarbonise the forestry sector and contributing towards Scotland reaching net zero.”

A similar scheme is seeing 700 tonnes of timber transported by rail in Wales, removing over  16 lorries from the road. 

This might all sound like bad news for the road haulage sector, but projects are underway to bring more eco-conscious timber lorries to the UK. 

One of these is Net Zero Timhaul. Putting three battery electric 44-tonne Volvo timber trucks on the roads in Scotland, it will also see charging units integrated into existing fleets by businesses.

The HGVs will handle both logs and sawn timber products for project partners including Scottish Forestry, JST Services and James Jones and Son.

Other eco-friendly proposals include plans to build the world’s first 40-tonne hydrogen-powered HGV in Glasgow, while an electric timber truck with a capacity of 80 tonnes is now being test-driven in Sweden. 

But even before the switch to electric and/or hydrogen is fully established, hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) have been mooted as possible stepping-stone changes; the latter currently powers the other one per cent of the UK’s haulage fleet. 

READ MORE: Welsh timber returns to the railway for carbon-cutting test run

Neil Stoddart said: “In the coming years, the timber transport industry will inevitably have to use vehicle alternatives to cut carbon.

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“This will require a change in attitudes towards electric vehicles from companies and hauliers, which will be easier to do with positive data and success stories.” 

How successful those stories will be will also depend on the support of governments to establish a sufficient charging network.

“The potential to decarbonise road transport is great,” Lars Mårtensson, environment and innovation director at Volvo Trucks, said. “But it is clear an infrastructure of fast chargers is important.”